Stargate: Revelations
by Fabius Maximus
Summary: Set after Season 7 of SG1 and Before the Battlestar Galactica miniseries, two people's are about to discover that they have to radically reassess how they and the larger universe interact.
1. Chapter 1

Stargate: Revelations.

Chapter I: Revelations.

Note: This takes place after the Season 7 Lost City episodes and diverges a great deal after that.

* * *

General O'Neill sighed as the elevator doors opened, revealing Walter with another pile of documents for him to sign.

"For me, Walter?"

"Yes sir."

O'Neill sighed and looked at the documents, ranging from the minor to the potentially world or career ending.

"Synopsize it for me."

"Yes sir, Well, there's the plans for the increased security around the base." Walter said, "The Pentagon is pretty worried about what is going to happen after the announcement."

"Well they should be." O'Neill said. He still wasn't certain if it was a good idea, but the facts were that when a gigantic alien battleship dropped into low earth orbit, not to mentioning vaporizing a carrier battle group, the cat was well and truly out of the bag. Half the major cities on earth were still under lockdown and the other half were suffering traffic jams around churches, synagogues and most importantly, bars.

"And last and not least, you have a scheduled meeting with the Defense Coordination Committee in one hour."

"No emergencies that will keep me from attending?"

"No sir. Ah, The President left a message."

"He did?"

"Yes sir. He stated: "Carter can handle it. You get the star, you get the headache.'"

"Darn." O'Neill said, for lack of any other statement that didn't erode military discipline.

"Jack!" O'Neill turned at Daniel Jackson's voice, a hopeful expression on his face.

"Daniel! I suppose there's an emergency that only I can handle?"

"No, nothing like that." Jackson said. "We've gotten some more information from the Free Jaffa about developments among the System Lords." He gestured at Teal'c.

"And how are our favorite snakes?"

"The death of Anubis has plunged the System Lords into Chaos, O'Neill. Baal continues to be the most powerful, but he is handicapped by the alliance the other Goa'uld system lords have formed against him. The former Jaffa didn't bother to keep the contempt out of his voice. "But the other system lords cannot defeat Baal, because they know that if they should become weakened, their 'allies' will turn on them."

"And what about earth?"

"As far as Master Brae'tac has been able to determine, none of the Goa'uld know that the Ancient defense system drained the power of the ZPM."

"That won't last." Daniel said. "We've become to much of a threat- sooner or later someone is going to send some ships to test us again."

"Indeed. And that might very well reveal that the Asgard are no longer capable of enforcing the Protected Planets Treaty."

"You know, you both have a great way of ruining my morning." O'Neill muttered. "Is there any _good_ news?"

"Well it looks like Anubis is still dead." Daniel pointed out.

"Thank you Daniel, I'll be certain to remember that."

* * *

Unfortunately, no world crisis intervened to save O'Neill from his meeting with Defense Coordination Committee. Technically the DCC was just that- a coordination committee with no actual power, but O'Neill knew that its recommendations would be listened to.

"Oh well, could be worse." He said to himself. "I could be dealing with Kinsey." He'd also had enough pull to keep the reps from bringing a horde of flunkies, second in commands and hat holders, so there were only eight generals to deal with. Even the Secretary of Defense was here by his lonesome.

"Gentlemen." O'Neill said, nodding at them, "I hope your trip down was pleasant."

"Very pleasant, General." The Indian representative General Vasu Gulati was shorter than O'Neill, but had a firm handshake. "This is much better than that unfortunate business in Pakistan." Gulati continued. "Perhaps the full revelation of what threats earth faces may prevent such unfortunate events in the future."

"Don't hold your breath."

"Oh, I will note that I'm hopeful, not stupid."

O'Neill fought to keep a smile off his face. Gulati's humor was the same as it had always been.

"Of course, things might have been better had your nation seen fit to notify it's allies." Admiral Roka Aoki said. The Japanese Admiral fixed a disapproving look on O'Neill. "After all, our nation is one of the most industrialized nations on the planet- had Anubis not been destroyed, our cities would have burned." There was a rumble of approval from the other officers, and while Gulati didn't join them, he also didn't smile.

_Yep. They're pissed._ O'Neill thought. The Stargate program had been a deep dark secret and even the nations that had known about it had kept it restricted to a small number of people.

"Gentlemen." The Secretary of Defense said, "That has been decided at a higher level. Our main question now is how best to organize a defense of earth and its interests."

"Earth's interests?" The Chinese representative asked. "Or the United States' interests?"

"Are they different?" The Secretary of Defense responded. "We are all at risk from the Goa'uld."

"Yes, but they are not the only powers out there." General Chin frowned. "I am not just a soldier- I obtained a history degree, and I fear America underestimates the challenges."

"We've done pretty good." O'Neill interjected.

"As did China-in fact, once or twice we surprised the western colonial empires. It didn't help us in the end, nor did it help India." Chin shook his head. "We have not permanently defeated the Goa'uld, and when one wins, he _will_ return to deal with us. The Goa'uld cannot let a symbol of their defeat exist."

"So what are you suggesting Chin?" The British representative said.

"At the very least, we need to form a _unified_ command."

"That may be premature." The Secretary said. "But equally, there are some developments that may help...ah improve our situation. General, is Colonel Carter ready?"

"Yes sir." O'Neill said and clicked the intercom. "Carter, Let's see what you have." Carter could have been in from the beginning but well, why subject someone you like to that?

"We haven't just been working on the _Prometheus _ and its successors." The Secretary said. "Colonel Carter and the people at Area 51 have a very nice new development for us."

"Thank you sir." Carter said. Picking up a remote, she called up the screen, showing a ship floating in the desert. "This is what we've christened the _Liberator._ After the defeat of Anubis, we had a number of wrecked Al'kesh bombers. We didn't duplicate the design completely, but with the aid of the Asgard and our own recovered technology, we developed a ship larger than an Al'Kesh, but smaller than the _Prometheus_."

"Very nice, but what makes it more useful than our current ships?"

"It's smaller." Carter said, "and once we get the bugs worked out, we can mass produce it. We've been discussing tactics against the Goa'uld and one thing that's clear is that we need a larger fleet- and even with the ability to openly produce new ships, we simply can't make enough of our larger ships. The _Liberator_ is intended to fill the gap."

"And, while it's true that none of your nations can start construction until the decisions on how to adapt the technology are finalized, we intend to share our production runs with every nation on the committee."

* * *

After the meeting broke up, O'Neill found himself with Carter and Gulati while the Secretary left with the rest of the generals.

"You'd think they'd want to stick around." O'Neill said sarcastically.

"They want to be back at their embassies when the announcement is made." Gulati said, "In case they have to flee torch bearing mobs."

"What about you?"

"I like torch bearing mobs. So should you!"

"I take it you know each other?" Carter asked.

"You might say that." O'Neill answered. "We worked on a joint operation which is still classified."

"Must have been some operation."

"It wasn't as dangerous as some, but it was far more embarrassing than most, though I must say the General's taste in dre-"

"_Class_ified." O'Neill reminded the Indian officer.

Gulati fell silent but kept the grin. Then he became serious. "Your revelation will be helpful for the short term, Colonel."

"But in the long-term they're gonna want more."

"_We're_ going to want more, Jack." Gulati dropped all pretense of humor. "Seriously, what else did you expect. Not only did you help get the entire planet involved in a war to the death, but you are by far the most powerful nation- you have starships, teleporters, allies with tremendous technological strength- I know what the Chinese are thinking and it's not just military- are they going to find their economy destroyed by technology that is given only to American companies?"

"Beyond my pay grade, Gul."

"Not now it isn't. Jack you're not just a general, you're a general in charge of the most important operation on earth now. I've been your friend, and my nation is a friend to your nation, but please, remind your government that we are now, all of us, at risk for your actions. We'll help, but we must be allies, not flunkies." With that, he nodded to O'Neill, gave a bow to Carter and left for the elevators.

"Plain spoken."

"That's Gulati." Jack said. "But he _is_ our friend- got his education here, half his family lives in the US."

"He has a point sir." Carter said, "We can't fight the Goa'uld unless our own house is in order."

"I know, Carter." Jack said as they walked to his office where Teal'c and Daniel waited. "But do you think they have our best interests at heart?"

"Do we have theirs?"

"Hmph."

"Almost time, guys." Daniel said, as Jack and Carter sat down. Moments later, the TV which had been displaying a "please stand by." Came up with the Presidential seal, which faded to reveal president Henry Hayes.

"My fellow Americans. I know that most of you have heard speeches before, but I am not exaggerating when I state that this is the most important speech you will ever hear..."


	2. Sort of Contact

Area 51 Ship Yards.

* * *

"Heard you had some excitement yesterday, Captain." Colonel Cameron "Cam" Mitchell said as he presented his ID.

"Oh, you could say that sir. Some people tried to breach the wire- zatted them all."

"Why?"

"You're going to love this- the announcement was a scam to cover up the _real_ aliens, that we were hiding at Roswell and moving here."

"I-" Cameron shook his head at that. "Thank god for non-lethals."

"Got that right. How's _John Brown_ coming?"

"Finished trials last week and we're up for our first mission."

"Good luck sir."

"It's probably a milk run, but hey, we can always hope." Mitchell said as he retrieved his ID and headed into the base. Only a few months before, secrecy had been the name of the game. Now there were nearly a dozen open fabrication docks, with the frames of a pair of 304s next to the smaller _Liberator_ class.

_Okay, we had the mother of all riots after the announcement, but it was worth it._ Mitchell thought. It had been only months, but now they were able to use the full industrial power of the United States, instead of playing secrecy games. Of course, it had required sharing some of the goodies, which hadn't sat well with some.

Hopping on to one of the electrical carts, Cam headed out to the landing field, where his ship was. He slowed up and stopped, grinning at the sight.

The _John Brown _ was smaller than the big battlecruisers, with a streamlined rectangular body surmounted by a superstructure. General O'Neill had described the design as "The bastard love child of the Prometheus and an Al'kesh" which as actually pretty accurate. The two energy cannon turrets, based on Goa'uld technology were complemented by a half dozen smaller rail guns and a vertically launched missile battery.

Cam swung down from the cart and walked over to his ship. The sentry at the ramp saluted.

"Welcome aboard Sir."

"It's nice to be back. Everyone ready?"

"They're waiting for you in briefing."

"Got it. You ready, Clarkson?"

"You bet, sir. I had friends on the carrier and I'd like to be able to repay the Goa'uld."

"Oh we will."

Briefing was directly behind the cozy (or cramped, depending on who you asked) bridge. The roomy spaces the Goa'uld preferred were fine for demigods with an inferiority complex- the Pentagon saw no reason for building a room any bigger than it had to be.

Inside, his XO Major Thomas Wilson stood up and saluted. Cam waved back and grinned.

"So how was the work while I was in DC?"

"Good. We got the harmonics ironed out and it's looking good. Where are we going?"

"Well, good news, bad news. It's going to be a long trip, but probably not a lot of action."

"Probably?" That last came from Captain Jennifer Cho. Cam had originally had some concerns about her. As Engineer she'd be vital to the ship, but had never seen combat. There was also the fact that she was positively tiny, in addition to being drop dead gorgeous. Some of the crew had taken to calling her "China Doll." Cameron had waited to see how she would handle it- and he wasn't disappointed. Cho was 34, had a six year old daughter, and so targeted her would be wooers for some aggressive motherly pride, complete with home movies. Problem solved, both for her and Cam.

"Well, we've been going through the star gate addresses." Cam said, and called up the big holodisplay. A flick and a large part of the Galaxy, in addition to the Magellanic Clouds was shrouded in red. "Goa'uld domains." Cam said, "You can see why this is sort of classified. We're a long way from celebrating their defeat."

"It's worse than that." Cho commented. "The Goa'uld had a ridiculous economy- if they start to rationalize it on a large scale-"

"Which Baal is doing." Thomas said.

"We're screwed unless we do something." Cam finished. "Yeah. Now here are areas where there are no stargates." A smaller number of purple areas appeared. "Most of them are empty areas, rifts or stuff like that. But then we get some interesting facts." He hit another button and some glimmering lights appeared. "Places where gates were, isolated, but largely aren't anymore. Homeworld Command figures that if you would go to the trouble of putting a gate all the way out there, and then locking it, there might be something interesting."

"Like, oh say an ancient base?"

"Or ZPM's, or the invincible armada of Ming the Merciless." Cam nodded. "So we're going to combine our maiden cruise with some looking around and the first place we're looking is here." There was a sudden zooming. "Hubble looked at it and we cross checked it with the Charts the Tokra and Free Jaffa provided us." He touched the display. "This is something that's pretty curious- four stars, fairly close together with planets. It's way the hell away from any gate, so we know the Goa'uld never got there- and the region of space got hit with a couple of big supernovae about 50,000 years ago, so probably nobody ever developed a civilization to muck with whatever the Ancients left behind."

"Is the gate dead or locked?"

"It has an error code, but Colonel Carter can't figure out it its software or hardware." Cam shrugged, "If we can get it working fine, if not, survey the region and return. We're packing one Tel'tak to extend our reach and the other MMB is going to carry extra supplies.

"Any reason for the interest in the region?" Cho asked.

"Unofficially, yeah. The Goa'uld haven't been there, and if there's no indigenous inhabitants, Homeworld Command wants to see if we can find some worlds without stargates. Could be useful for bases. Cam grinned. "Hopefully, no trouble, and we'll be back in time for our real mission- we're going to be tasked with escorting the Daedalus Battle Group."

* * *

The trip from earth was...boring. Mitchell figured that "boring" was not something most people associated with driving into the depths of space to do battle with the Evil Goa'uld... but when things worked right, space meant lots of time running drills and watching the stars go past.

He brought it up to Cho during one dinner in the packed mess hall. (Officers and men both- the _Liberator _class was truly egalitarian in its furnishings.)

"You mean the fact that according to Hollywood, we should have been attacked twice, had an alien monster take over the crew once and had me kidnapped by a bad space pirate?"

"You watched those shows?"

"Watched hell. I met Will when I was cosplaying Slave Leia."

"You're kidding."

"Nope, but don't tell anyone. I don't want the secret to get out to my daughter."

"Afraid she'll be mortified?"

"I know she'll be mortified- and I want to be the one to do it. I have an entire file of images for when she brings her first boyfriend home." Cam burst into laughter at the image.

"That's evil."

"True, but I deserve it- do you know what she asked me for?"

"A space rock?"

"An autograph." Cho said and pulled out an action figurine.

"You have got to be shitting me." Cam said finally.

"Someone should have told Teal'c about trademarking and IP law, but these are all the rage. She wants hers signed."

"You have got to do it when I'm around."

Cho smiled then got more serious. "The fact is, this was actually cleared through homeworld- watching a movie is one thing, but finding out that there are honest to god monsters...lots of people are scared."

"They should be."

"Yeah, but not too scared. I think they're really playing up how many friends we have."

Cam remembered the red shot galaxy. "Yeah, we also have a lot of enemies."

"Sir?" The intercom came up. "We're about to drop out at the primary."

"Be right there."

Cam and Cho made their way to the bridge, where Thomas was sitting in the chair, which is surrendered to Cam.

"We'll drop out at the edge of the nearest system." Mitchell said. The Goa'uld traditionally had been lazy about mountain a CAP or sensor watch, but between Earth, Anubis and Baal, that was no longer the case. To say nothign of any potential Ancient weapons left lying around.

"3-2-1... Drop out complete." The helmsman said, "We're-"

"Contact! Multiple electronic contacts!" The sensor operator snapped, her hands flying over the keyboard.

"Let me see." Mitchell said, getting up and walking over. "Anything close?"

"Negative. It's coming inside the system."

"Chalk one up for caution." Thomas said.

"Yeah." Mitchell answered. "Let's be more cautious. Take a look at the sensors."

"Holy..."

"We can't get a good look," Cho said, "But I'd say there are at least 600 ships moving around- mostly centered on these two worlds."

"What tech?"

"Can't be sure without getting closer." Cho commented. "But from the trajectories, they probably are using reaction thrusters of some kind." No indication of active shielding, but take that as you will- this far away, we could be looking at-"

"Contact!" The sensor operator snapped. "Small contact, 140KM 32/140 degrees!"

"Bring our shields up!" Mitchell snapped. They were already at action stations, but he had no idea what that object might be. "Thing's smaller than a 302- how did it generate a window-"

"It didn't." Cho said, looking at her board. "The products are not similar to those of a normal hyperspace window-"

"Time to leave." Cam said. "Take us out of here."

Moments later, the _John Brown_ spun on its axis and vanished into hyperspace.

* * *

"The Frack?" Boomer whispered. "Helo did you get that?"

"I got something, but Gods if I know what it was." Helo paused the recording, "Did you see how fast it turned? And that...whatever the hells it was didn't look at all like any FTL jump I've ever seen."

"Got that right." Boomer said. "Hang on, We're jumping back to base. Make certain those records are ready to transmit."

"Gotcha." Helo said. "And you said this was going to be a boring training flight..."

TBC.


	3. Discussions

Note: there are some fairly obvious changes in the Cylon dynamic, but more information will be forthcoming.

* * *

Unknown planet: 5 days after first contact.

* * *

Cam sat in front of the screen, talking to General O'Neill and Danial Jackson.

"We checked the other worlds from further out— nobody saw us, at least as far as we can tell, but they all had the sort of signatures that says massive industrialization."

"And you don't have any idea about the range of their FTL."

"No sir. We saw it only once, and I didn't want to risk getting too close— but I think it has a pretty limited range— we've found no sign of their ships out here."

"That could explain why nobody has contacted them." Jackson said. "The supernovae in the region sterilized or damaged a lot of the biospheres. If their FTL is less effective, they've probably come to the conclusion that their worlds are unique or nearly so."

"That's what Captain Cho thinks." Cam said, "But they've got a hell of an industrial infrastructure."

"But no functioning gates."

"No. This one was the closest functioning gate."

O'Neill leaned back. In the old days, there would be about three people he'd have to talk to to get permission to go in— now that it was public, everyone and their brother, from the Pentagon on down wanted their own input. Still…

"Recommendations?"

"I think we need to talk to these people. Their industry and population is too big to just ignore, and you can bet the Goa'uld won't." Cam shrugged, "I've got no idea how good their firepower is, but the System Lords got burnt once with earth. They're not going to let another threat rise if they can help it."

"Point. Stay out there, and I'll kick this one up the chain of command. But expect some visitors through the gate." O'Neill turned off the monitor and turned to Jackson. "Now see what you would have missed if you had gone to Atlantis?"

* * *

Picon Fleet Headquarters.

* * *

Nagala frowned, looking at the data logs again. They'd gone over it, and it was still maddeningly incomplete. The ship moved like nothing he'd ever seen, and then just vanished— not into an FTL jump, but something else.

"Cylon, it has to be."

"The design has no commonalities with Cylon ships, from the war." Dr. Gaius Baltar said. Frowning at the gathered officers he pointed to the screen. "Three factors stand out. First of all, the ship moved far faster than any ship of its size should be. Secondly, its form of FTL evidently required it to move _into_ a, well "window" for lack of a better term. Finally, the DRADIS scans seemed to bounce of what was a 'bubble' for lack of a better term that surrounded the ship."

"And you don't think it's Cylons." Nagala said.

"No," Baltar replied. "The Cylons know us, and one thing they were never accused of was being uncertain."

"He's right," Another officer said. "That looked like someone bumping into a raptor when they weren't expecting it, and bugging out to think it over."

"And unfortunately leaving us with no idea of the potential threat," Nagala said. "I've got to go over this with the President, but first of all, start looking at mobilizing the reserve, and maintain heavy patrols around all secure areas…" He smiled, "and tell Bill Adama to throw that fracking museum crap off the _Galactia. _We may need all the Battlestars we have."

* * *

Cylon Colony

* * *

"We can't attack, not now." A Six said.

"And why not?" A One asked. "The attack is scheduled for three months from now. The program is distributed and-"

"And we have no idea who the makers of that," the Six pointed to the screen showing the alien ship, "are."

"Well, we know it's not one of ours, and not one of the Colony's," an Eight said. "We also know that it uses radically different technologies."

"And that should change our plans why?" One asked.

"How about: it may turn out that an advanced alien species dislikes an attack?" The Six said. "And I'll also point out that the actual decision hasn't been made yet, not by us and not by the centurions."

"The centurions will accept our judgment." One said and smirked, "That's why we were made, after all."

"Well, _my_ judgment is that we should wait. Find out more, before we do anything…irreversible."

"I-"

"_And," _Six said, "the centurions agree with me. They have Consensus."

The humanoid cylons fell silent, One glaring, Six smug. Then One turned to a centurion.

"Is this correct?"

"A new datum has entered the situation. Caution is suggested." The centurion replied. "In any case, you speak incorrectly. Consensus has not been reached regarding the necessity of the planned attack."

One ground his teeth in frustrated fury.


	4. Evaluations

"You know," Cam said, "I thought that things would be a bit more exciting." The _John Brown_ had been orbiting far out from the system primary for nearly a week. After contact, Earth had decided that a bit more information was needed, which had the benefit of delaying any contact until the _Nat Turner _and _Spartacus _could join Cam's ship.

"Oh, it's exciting." Danial Jackson said, ensconced in the multi-purpose crew station. Nearly a dozen analysts and the equipment they needed had come through the stargate, Danial Jackson among them. He'd spent the last several weeks examining the data, to the point where Cho had felt the need to badger him into eating more than once.

"The problem," Jackson continued, "is there's just too much information." He gestured at the sensors picking up the broadcasts sent from the inner worlds. "We've not only got the wide area broadcasts, but we're also able to tap into some of the tight beam civilian traffic."

"There is a lot of it."

"They have 50 billion people and…" Danial gestured at one screen which seemed to be about a contest as to who could climb up a hill covered in slick material first, "…they're just as eager for cable as we are."

"But nothing military." Cam said. The people back at Homeworld had been insistent on that.

"I'm afraid not." Jackson said. "The cylon war made them pretty paranoid about signal security."

Cam nodded, as the temperature fell They'd seen more than enough of that— retrospectives and histories of the war were a big part, not simply in the educational broadcasts they'd picked up, but in a lot of dramas. Hundreds of millions dead and the catalyst that had brought the Colonies together into a single unified government.

"I've figured out their fleet balance," Cho said as she came in. Before she continued, she handed Danial a mug full of soup. "Eat."

"I-"

"I'm the only mother on this ship and what I say goes. Eat. General O'Neill warned me you get cranky when you have low blood sugar."

"Jack warn-"

"Yes. Or to quote: If you don't remind him, he won't eat and we don't need him to die on the job and make us wait until he gets kicked out of heaven. Again. Unquote."

"Yeah, that's Jack."

"You were saying about their fleet?" Cam said.

"Well, you know that Thomas and I are working up a combat evaluation— we can't get any classified stuff, but the fleet is pretty well documented in their general channels."

"And?"

"No shields. They need armor and they expect to get nukes tossed at them. You _can't_ armor a little ship well enough to handle nukes, so they have those big bastard battlestars, cruisers and warstars, and then little ships like the raptors and vipers. There's no reason to waste time on smaller ships that can't survive, aren't as useful and won't be that much cheaper."

"How many do they have?"

"Ah," Cho shrugged, "I'd say over a hundred of the big battlestars. A lot of the news stories we've been able to look at indicate that the cruisers and warstars were considered less capable so they're not being replaced."

"Doesn't hurt that a battlestar looks pretty damned flexible." Thomas said as he entered the room. "We don't have the classified info, that's for certain, but I'd say that we're also seeing the fact that the fleet hasn't had a war in over 40 years— so they probably have an eye towards multi-role platforms."

"Mgh." Cam said. "Threat assessment?"

"Right now, minimal. Unless they're really concealing something their FTL would take years to get to earth. Their ships are heavily armed and armored, but the lack of shields puts them at a disadvantaged." Cho paused, "But give them information and time— their technological level is _higher_ than ours is if you take out the technology we've been given, they have a much larger industrial and technological base, and of course they have a lot of practice in building programs."

"Okay. Jackson, you say they're not Goa'uld controlled—why? They've got the churches." Cam asked. There were reports going back and forth, but he was the commander on the scene.

"They don't act like Goa'uld." Jackson said. "The records and religious programs speak of them as being in the past and no Goa'uld has ever allowed a species to develop this level of technology."

"And the lords of Kobal?"

"Mmmm…." Danial paused. "I don't think they were Goa'uld, especially given what we've been able to recover— they never claimed to be omnipotent for one thing— and some of the older legends…I think we may be dealing with Ascended beings."

"That would explain they they vanished." Cho said, "Once you Ascend, you have to play by the rules, right?"

"Yeahhhh not always." Jackson said. "But the broadcasts seem to indicate a pretty diverse society, with a healthy tension between secular and religious factions…that's nothing we've ever seen from the Goa'uld."

"Except for monotheists." Cam had watched some of the drama's once the analysts had gotten the translation system running. The "translation" reminded him of bad quality anime subs, but a good chunk of the bad guys were monotheists— usually of the bomb tossing cackling evil variety."

"Well…it seems bound up with some earlier history— the VR stuff." Jackson said, "Not a lot of that clear yet, or rather we can't separate out fiction and truth."

"And the monotheists…"

"If the shows are accurate, they had a fairly large bomb-throwing contingent."

"It could just be propaganda.."

"I don't think so." Danial looked over at Cho. "A pantheon with several different gods can coexist-you may dislike one god's attitudes or the position of the priests, but his existence doesn't invalidate the rest— but a monotheistic religion, pretty much defines itself as the only true one."

"But Jews and Christians get along fairly well."

"Now." Jackson said, "But they, along with Islam, have the same root god, so you can say that the other guy isn't doing it right, but he's still worshiping your god." Danial paused and frowned, "And even there, think about the crusades— the Colonies have had conflicts, but nothing like that."

"Not until the Monotheists came along."

"Pretty much." Jackson said, "The information is confused, but it seems like at least one faction engaged in acts of terrorism— so most people in the colonies see them as, well dangerous, at least in potential."

"Great." Cam said. "Any idea how they'll react to a few billion?"

Danial looked at him, "Any idea how our billions of monotheists will react to the idea that our poor benighted Colonial brethren are following the wrong gods straight to hell?

* * *

"I do not think we should contact them. As you can see their technology is too primitive to get to us." The stuffed shirt from the Senate Committee on the Colonies was droning on. O'Neill thought of the Zat in his office and smiled at the possibilities.

"With respect, Senator," General Gulati said, in his position as representative of the Joint Defense Council, "That is extremely short-sighted."

"Forgive me." The Senator frowned, "I do not see what concern it is of yours, as this is a political question."

"One which is not solely up to the United States'" Gulati pointed out.

_Oh Crap._ O'Neill leaned forward. The revelation of the situation had required a pretty major realignment of the political realities on earth and one of those was the US losing its previous (which was to say, total) authority over offworld policy. That had the black helicopter gang going absolutely nuts, and the Senator was a champion of "The US Leads, everyone else smiles and counts themselves fortunate to get a pat on the head" faction.

"Then by all means," The Senator said, "Educate us."

"We are fighting a war on many fronts now." Gulati said. "We have had some successes, mainly because the Goa'uld are divided and don't consider us a major threat yet. They know that Anubis was defeated by an Ancient weapon which we can neither move nor duplicate and our warships are, at best, equal to their Ha'Taks… and they have more of them."

"And contacting another potential enemy will help us?"

"They are a potential ally— with hundreds of capital warships, and an industry that can build more. You saw the estimates sent back by the _Nat Turner's_ crew and Dr. Jackson— this fleet is what they consider sufficient— not all that they can build." Gulati leaned forward, looking at the politicians. "It was not your armies that defeated the Empire of Japan all those years ago— it was your factories. We need them. WE need allies that are not made up of traumatized survivors of Goa'uld occupation who have been kept at a medieval level of technology. If we do not get them, we will lose this war."

"Surely that's an exaggeration-"

"-no. It isn't." O'Neill said, and stood up under the glare of the stuffed shirts. "Every world we liberate needs teachers, engineers and help— the snakes don't care if their slaves are barely avoiding starvation. But that means that until we get them back on their feet, they're a drain… but we can't stop because if we do, it means that the snakes can get their feet back under them." He paused, "And there's another reason."

"Oh?"

"The Goa'uld may know about them already— we've still got agents, and not all the snakes are dumb, so they might know and if they do, the solution is to send a bunch of motherships over there and kill 'em off. We owe it to them,Senator, to at least warn them of what might be coming their way."

* * *

After the conference broke up Gulati and Jack paused.

"That was unwise, my friend." Gulati said. "You may have made some powerful allies."

"Nah, I have to break into their house and threaten to shoot them for that." Jack said. "And we need more people who will pitch in— not sit back like the Tollan or the Nox."

"I know." Gulati sighed. "Your nation doesn't understand, Jack, not yet."

"Understand?"

"You've never been invaded. You've suffered terrorist attacks, you've lost men and women in wars…but that Senator, doesn't believe, not in his heart, that you can lose— that Washington could one day burn or be occupied by a foreign ruler."

"No— but a lot of them…" Jack paused. "C'mon Gul, you're asking these guys to give up their power, the US is going to be the first among equals…but those guys don't want it to be the first among equals. The want it to be El Supremo."

"I know." Gulati said, "But first or last doesn't matter to the dead, and you know that's what is going to happen if we lose this war. The Goa'uld won't stop until this world's continents are nothing but molten glass. We've hurt them too badly."

"I know." Jack said. "And the President does as well— they're going to make contact, Gul— I just hope it goes okay."

"Define: "okay"."

"Well them not shooting at us would be a good start."

TBC.


	5. Saying Hi!

Saying: Hi!

* * *

"We ready?" Cam asked.

"As ready as we're going to be," Jennifer said from her console. "We're far enough out that anything they could hit us with won't penetrate the shields, at least not before we can FTL the hell out of here."

"Comforting." Danial said.

"Yeah," Cam said. "Get ready to talk fast Jackson, if they look like they're about to shoot, I'm leaving."

"That's why we're coming out here— far enough away so we're not an immediate threat…"

* * *

Caprica Defense Headquarters

* * *

Even with heightened alerts there were boring times, and Ensign Keith Ballat was dealing with one of them. The screens were clear and in fact if he was lucky his relief would get in so-

Then a red indicator flared as the same signature detected by the raptor several weeks before was seen in Caprica space. He looked at it for a moment, then slammed his hand down on a red button and all hell broke loose.

President Adar was finishing up some work when his security detail burst into his room with several officers in tow.

"Mr. President, we have to get you to the secure shelter."

"Our alien?"

"It just jumped into the high orbitals, and we have no idea if it can threaten the city." His military attache said.

"Has the public been alerted?"

"No sir, as per your orders."

"Good. The last thing we need is a panic."

* * *

_John Brown_

* * *

"Hello," Jackson said as the planet below them started to act like a disturbed beehive.

"I'm picking up at least four of those big battlestars coming our way. They're launching fighters and raptors." Cho said, her voice clipped and professional. "Sensors don't indicate any nukes on the fighters."

"Those would be their ready fighters, and that's a fast response time," Cam said.

"Confirms our theory." Cho replied. "If they don't have any shields or way to detect their FTL drive, they have to have some forces ready to go at all times."

"Yeah, but these forces won't be the only ones. Jackson, You're on."

"Okay." Danial Jackson started speaking into the mike. "To the People of the Colonies. I am Danial Jackson, a human of the T'auri. We are not a hostile state, nor do we have any intentions to land or make further contact against your wishes. We will remain here until you respond. If you wish us to leave, we will do so, but we will leave coordinates where one of our ships will regularly stop by to see if you desire further contact."

"Status on those battlestars?" Cam asked.

"They've lit us up with sensors, but no direct fire control emissions yet." Thomas said from his station. "Polite of them."

* * *

Presidential Command Center.

* * *

"…no further contact."

"They're speaking our language." Adar said.

"With a horrible accent," an aide commented.

"It makes sense." Doctor Herai said. The older woman had been quite shocked to have been hustled out of her linguistics class by colonial marines, stuffed into a raptor and flown to the PCC, but her protests had ended the moment she was told what was happening. "If they are human, as they claim, they would have a far greater ability to understand our languages, even presuming that they don't have some common language in their history."

"Why wouldn't they?" Another adviser asked. "They are from Kobol, after all."

"Are they?"

Adar winced.

"What do you mean?" Admiral Nagala said.

"We know that species take millions of years to evolve-after all we have twelve different ecosystems, not counting minor systems. Humanity was brought here by the Lords about two thousand standard years ago." She shrugged, "That leaves thousands or tens of thousands of years for other groups to develop technology."

"That wasn't mentioned in the sacred scrolls." The first adviser said, a challenging tone in his voice.

Herai shrugged. "The sacred scrolls are not some nicely cross referenced and annotated history, complete with a bibliography. You know as well as I do that even the most conservative members of our religion accept that there may be some passages that were edited over time to leave out embarrassing information."

"Please don't say that at the news conference." Adar said, feeling a pounding headache coming on.

"I teach in a public university, trust me, I know." She said. "But the fact remains that these humans may not be from Kobol. Or they might be from it. We don't know."

"So, shall we talk to them?"

"Yes." Nagala said. "Mr. President, at the very least we have to warn them about the cylons, and not just out of friendship— if the cylons should gain that technology…"

"Agreed." Adar said. "Unless there are some major objections?"

There were none.

"They're still beaming this to our military station, correct?" Adar asked.

"Yes, Mr. President- no civilian stations should be picking this up."

"Good. At least we have a little time to get ahead of this. Get Baltar here, I want his take on their technology."

"Yes sir." Nagala said. Baltar was an arrogant bastard with a taste for attractive women, but he did know his stuff.

* * *

_John Brown_

* * *

"We're getting a response." Danial Jackson said. "We are happy to accept the brotherhood of other men and women. If you are willing, we have a landing field set up for you…" He paused. "Oh, that's clever."

"What?" Cam asked.

"It's in their coordinate system— if we know that, they know we've been watching them."

"Well, grandma always said if you want to make friends, it's a lot better if they're smart ones." Cam replied. "Bring us down— weapons offline ,but keep the shields ready to go."

"Are we going to use the transporters or rings?" Cho asked.

"No. They don't have anything like that, and if we go flaunting tech, they might assume we're trying to scare them— I know I would if I was them."

Cam paused and thought for a moment, then nodded. The risk was worth it— the cloaked Tel'Tak far behind them would be able to see anything that happened and relay it back to earth.

"Tell them we're happy to attend the party, Danial."


	6. Landing

**Landing**

* * *

Much to his annoyance Adar was not at the landing site. Admiral Nagala had calmly informed him that he could court martial him later, but if he had to, he would lock the President in a closet before letting the leadership of the 12 Colonies within line of sight of a group with unknown intentions.

Adar finally consented when he realized that for once the ongoing dick waving contest between the military and his security detail had ended, and his bodyguards would probably happily join the Admiral's staff in locking him in said closet.

So, at the moment of the most important event in the History of the 12 Colonies since the Cylon War…Adar sat in his office and fumed.

Quietly.

He was a politician, after all.

Nagala tried to keep a smile from his face. It wasn't fair, but the utter _frustration_ on Adar's face had been priceless.

Not that Nagala had been bluffing. In fact, truth be told, the main reason he was here was that it might be seen as an insult to not have at least one high ranking individual present— but ultimately, soldiers were more expendable than the civilian leadership.

The base they had chosen was outside of the city, but linked to it by the underground rail network built after the first war. Fast enough to move troops and deep enough to be nearly invulnerable to conventional air strikes, it had been built in order to allow troops to move around Caprica even if they lost control of the air.

"Sir? They're on their way down." An aide told Nagala.

"The escort?"

"Viper and raptors— the EW bird still can't get through that bubble."

"As expected." Nagala turned back to studying the sky.

"Maybe some form of EM shielding." Baltar said from behind him. The scientist had invited himself and brought his "aide," a blond woman that Nagala expected knew more about the inside of Baltar's bedroom than the contents of his lab.

"Here it comes." One of the officers said.

The _John Brown,_ came over the group, eerily silent when compared to the roar of most ground capable transports. It lightly touched down, but left a few feet of empty air between it and the ground. Baltar's eyes widened.

"Antigravity!" He said. "I cannot-"

"Hell, we've had it for years. How do you think those basestars stayed aloft," an officer scoffed.

Baltar glared at him. "And those basestars could barely move because they dedicated so much mass to agrav generators. Why do you think we hardly use them— they've…they've managed to miniaturize them, and combined with their speed, they must be able to do something about internal inerti-I must see that ship!" Baltar finished, bouncing like a boy at his first Colonial Day. Next to him, Doctor Herai sighed.

Nagala hoped that Baltar would keep himself under control.

* * *

_John Brown_

Cam was a bit nervous. The problem was that this was a first— in most cases, the T'auri had either contacted people through the gate, which kept things small scale, or had already had some contact protocols set up. This was the first case where they were contacting a highly advanced space faring species that had never had gate contact with the larger galaxy.

Not to mention, they had a somewhat different attitude towards war. The Colonies had kept the peace after the Cylon War, but everything they'd picked up about the Cylon War indicated that the Colonial attitude towards WMD's, especially when used against military targets was "the more the better."

"You ready Jackson?" He asked.

"As I'll ever be."

"I'm not certain if we should be telling them about the Goa'uld…" Cam said. That might lead to problems when they heard about their gods… And Homeworld Command might have good reasons, but they were on Earth, not here.

Daniel shook his head. "No, Jack's right. They don't see their gods as omnipotent beings, and that means that a smart Goa'uld might play up its age or even claim to be an emissary."

"Yeah, well I'll keep the engine warm," Cam answered.

"Landing in two," Thomas said. "Just as an FYI, there are a lot of ground units down there."

"And a greeting party," Cam said as he looked at the screen. There was a carpet, not red but deep blue, extending onto the tarmac, with two rows of soldiers who were obviously in full dress. Behind them twelve flags snapped in the breeze. "They're going all out…"

"Beats being shot at," Cho commented.

"Oh, not always," Jackson replied.

* * *

Nagala waited as a landing ramp opened up and three figures emerged, two men and one woman. Nagala nodded. _So, they have a mixed military as well._

The soldiers saluted the party, as they moved up to Nagala and his party.

"Greetings from the people of the T'auri," The first one said in credible Colonial Standard. "My name is Daniel Jackson."

_Odd. You'd think that they'd be beyond glasses._

"Mr. Jackson," Nagala said. The radio conversation had also made it plain he was not in the military, which was curious.

"Colonel Cameron Mitchell," The other man said, "CO of the John Brown. This is my engineering officer Captain Jennifer Cho."

"Colonel, Captain," Nagala said, "welcome to the Colonies." He smiled, "From your command of our language, I assume that you've spent your time observing us profitably."

"We…thought it would be best to know the situation before we dropped by." Mitchell said.

"Wise." Nagala smiled. "But I'm being remiss— this is Dr. Gaius Baltar and Doctor Herai, two of our leading scholars, and Lady Elosha, a spiritual adviser to the government.

"Thank you," Jackson said. "I believe we have a good deal to talk about. Your language is similar to many dialects of our homeworld, and our researchers were able to cobble up some printed materials to help you understand the current state of the Galaxy."

"Homeworld. It must be rather close, then," Baltar said.

"No. We used something called a Stargate to communicate with it."

"But then where is-"

"There's no need to get into that right now, doctor," Nagala said. _Because if they were going to tell us they would have already, so don't force them to come out and say they're not going to tell us. _He then continued, "Stargate?"

"Yes," Jackson said. "It's a device for interstellar travel developed by a people we call the Ancients. The odd thing is that there is one on this world, or at least their should be, but we weren't able to activate it."

"Can you tell us what it looks like?" Baltar asked.

"Certainly," Jackson said.

_I hope this doesn't blow up in our faces,_ Cam thought. On the other hand, not telling them about a potentially dangerous piece of technology would be a lot _more_ likely to blow up in their faces. Jackson provided a picture of the stargate to the Admiral.

Nagala blinked at the picture, then groaned.

"Is there a problem?"

"Technically? No." Nagala said. "However, there are going to be some embarrassed looking historians."

"Oh indeed," Elosha said.

"Embarrassed?"

"What you're showing us is the 'ring of transcendence' a object that some primitive societies revered as a way to leave the world, not long after our arrival here during the Dark Ages." Nagala's voice become sarcastic. "Obviously just a superstition in our enlightened era, which is why it was put in the Caprica Museum of History."

"Interesting…" Jackson said. "Well, if we could get it operational, you could have much closer contact with our world."

"I'll have to speak to my leaders about that," Nagala said.

"Instant transfer?" Baltar finally said. "How does it operate?"

"I can provide you with some information," Cho told the doctor. "It's fairly complex and we don't fully understand all of its operating principles even now."

"So it's not fully understood?" Baltar asked. "How many are still operating?"

"Millions," Cho replied. "The Ancients…well let's just say they had some tricks."

"Well, then let us adjourn to more comfortable surroundings." Nagala said. "Your crew will be remaining on board for the present, I take it?"

"Yes." Cam said.

_So you don't have to worry about the ship being taken._ Nagala thought. Which implied, rather strongly, that they had encountered beings who might _try_ to _take _the ship.

* * *

The meeting room had been devised by the best minds in teh Colony to not give offense to their visitors.

_That, unfortunately gives it all the charm of a morgue,_ Nagala thought. Still, the three guests didn't seem put off by it as they sat down.

"So," Cam said. "You're probably interested in how we got here, and why."

"Oh, I believe that's an understatement," Nagala replied.

"Well, it starts a while back for us— a lot longer back for the galaxy…"

"If I might," Baltar asked, "Before we get into that…why haven't we contacted or even seen you yet?"

"This part of the galaxy is, well, a bit of a desert." Jackson replied. "Not a lot of habitable worlds and the stellar activity ensured that it would remain unattractive to explorers."

"The supernovas," Balter said.

"Right." Cam replied. "Not a lot of interest in a part of the galaxy where half the worlds were flash-fried."

"Fortunately for you," Cho added. "I think it's important to say, right up front, that not all the people in the larger galaxy are friendly."

"Such as?" Baltar asked.

The three visitors looked at each other for a moment, almost as if they were reassuring each other that a decision that had already been made was the right one.

"Well," Jackson said, "it works best if we give you some background. Sometime ago on our world, we discovered one of these gates and learned how to use it. Our first contact did not go entirely well…"


	7. Meetings and Considerations

Considering the Future:

Note: I'm a freelance writer by trade which is why some of these chapters are pretty short- I'm writing them when my reaction to a paying assignment is to scream and toss it out the window. Because of that, if I make them longer, it will make the update time somewhat slower.

Also, while it may be a bit of surprise to some, most of the discussion of the history of earth happens off camera- the readers know all of that, so I thought it would be better and more entertaining to focus on the reactions.

* * *

Baal's Flagship:

"My lord, why do we not destroy these new humans?" one of Baal's subordinates asked. Baal shook his head. _Such fools,_ he thought. _If only the humans of earth were more reasonable…_ If he had met them first, before… well, he hadn't and there was no purpose in regretting it. Whatever they might have been, now they were his deadly enemies. _Besides, I probably wouldn't have done much to recommend myself to them._

"Because we cannot," Baal finally said. His look was slightly annoyed which caused a number of his subordinates to start sweating. There were no Jaffa attending their masters in this secure room— Baal was not foolish enough to expect that he had purged the ranks of his Jaffa of spies, whether from the Tok'ra or the Free Jaffa.

"You will see here," Baal said, activating the holodisplay with a wave. "Our enemies are disunited, but they continue to press." Dozens of symbols, showing those System Lords who had not come into Baal's service, were mixed with worlds that were free, either independent or aligned with an enemy faction. "While our spies have successfully located these…Colonies, they would require a great deal of power to destroy, and in the mean time our enemies will be moving against us."

"The other System Lords will not be so merciful."

"The other System Lords are fools." Baal said. "They seem to have failed to notice that their 'divinity' has not saved them from death at the hands of the Tau'ri." He paused, "They will attack these people and rouse them to a terrible fury."

"I…Forgive me, Lord Baal, but how does that help _us?_"

Baal sighed and then looked companionably upon his subordinates. _A gang of arrogant fools who would turn on me in an instant. _

"It helps us in the fact that this new faction will no doubt seek to destroy the ones who attacked them _first._ Meanwhile, _we_ shall be rationalizing our economy and improving our forces." He paused, then looked at them. "Go. I will have further orders for you later."

As the chamber emptied, Baal walked over and looked at his treasures from the Tau'ri. Books and documents seized at great cost. He picked one up, and smiled as he read the titles of the books behind it: _Principles of Industrial Management, History of the Second World War, _and _Strategy and Tactics for the Industrial Age_, beyond those books there were dozens, and those were only the ones that Baal intended to read tonight. There were, after all, some benefits in being a genius with thousands of years of experience.

"I almost regret that I will have to destroy you at some point." Baal said. "You have such wisdom to confer upon the universe."

After all, if it hadn't been for the Tau'ri discovering this new people he might have been trapped in a deadlock with the other system lords for years. And if the Tau'ri hadn't been so confident that every Goa'uld would come storming in, eyes glowing, he would have never been able to use some factions greed against them to establish his intelligence network on their homeworld.

Which of course cut two ways— he knew that the Tau'ri did have suspicions of Goa'uld infiltration, which seriously limited what he could have his servants do. Not without proving their suspicions.

"Now, which one of my enemies will attack these new humans in a way that will enrage but not seriously harm…" Baal said to himself, thinking.

_Yes. That one will do just fine, _Baal picked up his first book of the night, reminding himself to send the messages to his double agents first thing tomorrow. After all, even a God needed some relaxation.

* * *

Caprica City: Office of the President:

Nagala sat in the office with Adar, Herai, Baltar and Elosha. The rest of the staff had been banished. The only recorder was in Adar's hand, and the president looked at the innocent pile of minutes like they were about to bite him.

"You have got to be fracking kidding me." He finally said. "Parasitic aliens that use humans like puppets? That pretend to be the Lords of Kobol?" He passed a hand through his hair. "Can you _imagine_ how that is going to play with the press?"

"Not as badly as you seem to think, Mr. President." Elosha said. "They took some pains to explain that these…Goa'uld often imitate gods, but do so as impostors."

"Yes, well given that humanity, at least according to them, was taken off of the Tau'ri homeworld to serve the Goa'uld, I don't think it will take a great mind to understand the implications." Baltar said.

"Yes. And the common man will largely discount them." Elosha said. "We've had impostors before— remember the monists and their "virtual heaven?"" She shrugged, "Some will be fearful, but so long as the Tau'ri do not press the point and right now, they seem eager to avoid getting into religious questions, I think that the disruption will be minimal."

"And this Ascension?"

"That could be more problematic." Elosha said more seriously. "From the Holy Scrolls, we can find material that might seem like Ascension, but I'm more concerned about the mentally unstable seeking a way to Ascend that involves their death— or that of those around them."

"VR Heaven again, eh?" Adar said.

Elosha nodded. "For those suffering challenges in their own lives, or who feel their lives are without meaning, this could be very tempting."

"And what if they succeed?" Herai asked.

"Then, according to the Tau'ri, they are forbidden to directly intervene, which I might add, is a point that makes a great deal of sense if we apply it to the Lords' absence after we came to the Colonies."

"They Ascended?"

"I do not know." Now Elosha, for all of her poise, looked uncertain. "But we do know that the Lords doubted, could know betrayal, and yes love. They, no less than we, often looked to a higher cause." She laughed, "If you ask what it means, I can only tell you that the theological implications will be… a long time in the understanding. Perhaps the arrival of the Tau'ri and this information is intended by the Lords, to start us on another path."

"Just as long as that path doesn't involve riots." Adar said. "We're going to have them, I can feel it."

"We have riots after a major game." Nagala said. "I'm more concerned about invincible warships dropping into orbit."

"Do you think they are?" Adar asked.

"I don't know, but I do know that these Tau'ri are well versed in give and take, so why did they give us that-" He gestured at some of the documents, "unless they expected that we couldn't win on our own."

"Is it that important?" Adar asked.

"Yes, it is." Baltar said, leaning forward. "I've seen the data files, that they had put into our own format and that they were authorized to give us, _even absent an agreement." _The scientist frowned. "We now have people working on them, but unless they did something very clever, these appear to be the working schematics for a force shield, and I _cannot_ believe I am using that term, roughly equivalent to what the Goa'uld use."

"And some suggestions on modifying our missiles to penetrate shields." Nagala said. "I think it's pretty plain they're worried, and don't want to stake us out if the Goa'uld find us."

"Or that's what they want us to think." Adar said.

"Mr. President?"

"Well, 'I'm doing you a favor out of the goodness of my heart,' is a pretty common negotiating tactic." Adar said. "And I'll note nobody is talking about that incredible drive of theirs or the antigravity… They're giving us last years goodies."

"Not…entirely." Baltar said. "Mr. President, you need to understand one thing— in many respects, they're _less_ advanced than we are." He shrugged, "I've been going over what they gave us, and while they don't come right out and say it, all their talk of FTL, all their high technology, dates from after their discovery of the stargate." He paused, "Their schematics talk about using crystals and integrating them, poorly, with conventional electronic systems, and honestly, _those_ diagrams look like some of the equipment I worked on as a graduate student."

"I noted the same thing," Herai said. " Mr. President, the documents they gave us have a _large _number of loan words, mostly involving the more advanced technologies— which indicates that they themselves did not develop them, or were even close enough _too_ developing them to have developed their own terminology."

"So what does that leave us?"

"A very determined people." Elosha said. "Accepting what Dr. Baltar and Dr. Herai say is the truth, then it means that they started with little in the way of advanced technology, facing beings that see mankind as beasts of burden at best. And yet now they visit us in a starship they built themselves. That says to me that they are a formidable people."

"Either as allies or enemies." Adar said. "But for now, we'll assume it's as allies. They returned to their ship?"

"I think they don't quite trust us enough to sleep in a hotel." Nagala said. "Given what they've told us, not entirely unwarranted."

"Think they have a link on their ship with anyone else?"

Nagala shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. We don't know about all their technology and to be honest, they could probably do it with our tech— unless we wanted to be very obvious about looking for it."

"No." Adar looked out over the city and frowned. "Okay, how quickly could we refit our fleet?"

"It would take some time to adapt the information…" Baltar said. "But the energy forms of the shield…" He paused.

"Doctor?"

"Using their crystals might take a very long time without their direct assistance, but we might be able to modify some of our own systems to produce the necessary wave forms… it would be crude, you must understand and not equal even to these 'Goa'uld', but it would be something we could produce in a matter of a few weeks."

"Nagala?"

"What type of production rate are we talking about?"

Baltar frowned and closed his eyes in thought.

_He may be an asshole, but he's a brilliant asshole._ Nagala thought.

"Maybe four battlestars, to start with— it would be wisest if they were all the same design." Baltar finally said.

"Valkyries, then." Nagala said, "We can pull them in here, and once we get the design finalized start adding it to the rest of the fleet."

"Excellent," Adar said. "If you'll all excuse us, I have some things that I and the Admiral should go over." The others took the hint and quickly left the room. When the door closed, Adar sat for a moment, thinking, then looked over at Nagala.

"Goa'uld," Adar said. "Parasitic beings that can take over a man without anyone noticing."

"Yes. Unless they're lying."

"That's a bit too convoluted. But I'd have to ask you, Admiral. If there _were_ Goa'uld in the Colonies, could we tell?"

"Not right now." Nagala said. "But I understand your point. I'm going to put some independent groups working on a test that can be used to detect any modifications to a human biology."

"Independent?"

"Like you said, how would we _know_ if we had been infiltrated. Best to spread it out."

"And then?"

"Then we start running tests— first on high military and civil personnel, then the ranks, then everyone who might have access to classified data." Nagala smiled. "Don't tell Baltar. He's been flaunting that eye candy of his all over the base during his work on the new software systems and I want to see his expression when he realizes he's going to have to explain to her why she just got some needles stuck in an uncomfortable place."

* * *

_John Brown_

"That actually went a lot better than I had thought." Cam said.

He, Thomas, Cho and Jackson were sitting in the cramped wardroom of the _John Brown._ The rest of the crew was on staggered shifts, with someone always on the bridge and the sensors up.

_Trust…but verify_. Cam thought.

"How soon do you think they'll be able to refit their ships?" Cam asked Cho.

"Soon." The engineer said. "Cam, these people have an industrial machine like we've never seen. I don't think any of you understand just what an advantage being able to throw a thousand engineers at a problem gives them." She laughed. "Did I ever tell you about Colonel Carter's problem?"

"Errr…no?" Jackson said.

"When we were working on the MK II Naquada generators, it turned out we needed a part. A resistor that some idiot had forgotten to stock."

"And?"

"And the Colonel was the only with the security clearance to know what part she needed and why she needed it… Long story short, she spent a weekend going to every electronics warehouse in Los Angeles." Cho turned serious. "But it stopped a lot of work until she got it,and before we went open, they entire program had issues like that—now we're public, but even now there's a lot of stuff that is classified, and even the stuff that isn't— well, it's not like we can run to CSUF's graduating class and ask for all their graduates in advanced hyperdrive engineering. Ditto for sublight, ditto for life support, etc, etc, etc." She gestured at the wall. "These people? They have a fleet that numbers in the hundreds." She shrugged. "So, yeah, if they start throwing people at this, they'll have something pretty damned fast."

"So now for the 64 dollar question— are they going to ally with us?" Cam asked.

"Are we going to ally with them?" Thomas asked. When the others turned to him he shrugged. "Jennifer's right, Cam. They've got a population of 50 odd billion and the industrial machine to match. We ally with them, they're going to get our tech pretty fast, because I doubt they're going to be happy losing men in fights they could win because we hold the goodies— but once they hold the goodies, they'll be in a position to out produce us in every way."

"You think they're going to conquer us?"

"No…" Jackson said. "It sounds odd for all their weapons, but they're pretty defensively minded- the Cylon War was traumatic. But, if they help us, it may turn out like WWII— the US didn't conquer Britain but by the end of the war…"

"We were the ones calling the shots and they were the junior partners."

"Fine." Cho said quietly. The others looked at her in surprise. "The Goa'uld think my child's life destiny is being a slave or a meat puppet for them to walk around in. They think that's _all_ our destinies. For the last 10,000 years billions of humans have lived and died serving those monsters, thinking they're gods. I want them dead. I want them dead, gone, and forgotten and we can deal with what happens after that as it comes."

"I'll go for that." Jackson said.

"Yap." Cam agreed. "First things first…and speaking of that, we'd better turn in. The Colonials are taking us to the gate tomorrow." He looked over at Jackson and raised his eyebrows. "Something funny?"

"Oh, I'm just remembering how they asked us whether or not it could work in orbit."

"Caught that as well. Well, walking or flying, we'd better be ready."

TBC


	8. Negotiations

Negotiations

it may be a while before I get to another update- some big jobs are coming in for me, writing wise.

* * *

Cam and Cho sat behind the pilot of the raptor. The Colonial's had offered a far more luxurious shuttle, but Cam had asked to go up in a raptor and they'd obliged him. Of course, he noticed that more than a few systems appeared to have been turned off, but that was par for the course. Cam wasn't about to bitch at someone for doing what he would do, after all.

And the ride had been impressive. The raptor had entered orbit far faster than an F-302 would and seemed to only require one multi-role engine for both air and space operations. On the other hand, they didn't seem to have effective inertial compensators, at lest when compared to the F-302s.

_But add their propulsion tech and our inertial compensators…_ oh yeah, Mitchell thought.

"There's our destination, sir." The pilot gestured out the window. "Gateway Station."

"It looks like a battlestar flight pod." Cho said.

"It was— they were tearing down the old Pride of Caprica and it was decided to use the flight pod. It's completely self contained.

Cho and Cam shared a look. The Colonies had done something in a day that the earth probably couldn't have done in months, not without help.

"What ship is that?" Cho asked, gesturing at another ship, already partially enshrouded in a refit bay.

"Galactica." The pilot's pride was obvious. "I served aboard her— good ship, fought in the war. They were going to turn her into a museum." He said, his tone showing what he thought of that idea. "But now they're refitting her up to the old wartime standard."

Moments later, they were landing on the deck of the Gateway Station, the raptor being lowered down to what had been the main hanger bay. Now it was modified, with the stargate and DHD both emplaced in it.

"I thought you hadn't been able to find it?" Cho asked Baltar.

"Not immediately," Baltar said. "It had been first recovered apart from the gate and at the time, it's technology was…undiscovered."

"Nobody opened it?"

"When it was recovered, Captain, the attitude towards artifacts of the Lords of Kobol…was somewhat more reverent." Nagala said.

"The fact that it appears to retain power after so long…" Baltar shrugged, "That is utterly amazing."

"Well, if Captain Cho can verify that it's operational…" Cam said, "We can make contact."

"Good." Nagala said, "And once we verify it's safe I can let the president come here and hopefully save my pension."

It took Cho only a few minutes to test the system with her kit, Baltar leaning over her shoulder. Moments later, she looked over to Cam and gave a thumbs up.

"With your permission?" Cam asked Nagala and the Colonial Admiral nodded.

"Here we go."

* * *

Stargate Command:

"Incoming wormhole detected!" O'Neill's head snapped up at the announcement. He'd been waiting for some time for it, but even so, he felt a small thrill. These sorts of contacts could go very well, or very poorly. "You read, Mr. Secretary?" He asked the Secretary of State.

"As I'll ever be," that worthy said, and the two men walked to the gate room.

* * *

Gateway Station:

"Sending GDO code…" Cam said. "SGC, can you read me, this is Colonel Mitchell. Please confirm my GDO code?"

"Code Confirmed," Walter said.

Another voice came on the line. "So, looks like you found some friends, Colonel."

Cam grinned. General O'Neill was always one for understatement.

"Yes I did sir— I confirm the gate is operational."

"Good. We'll shut it down and reopen it from our direction. See you soon." Moments later the gate shut down.

There had been some discussion about that, but all had agreed that if the gate had one of its rare, but memorable mishaps it would probably be unwise to have to explain to the Colonial government that their Admiral had been sent back in time, eaten by a black hole, or dropped into an alternate reality where Anubis ruled the Colonies.

Moments later, the gate activated, and its vortex formed, well within the caution lines the Colonial's had painted on the deck. General O'Neill and Secretary of State Davidian emerged. Admiral Nagala walked forward and shook hands with O'Neill. "Welcome General." He said to the first flag officer to visit the Twelve Colonies.

* * *

_Galactica: _

Lieutenant Gaeta could hardly keep the spring out of his step. The Commander was in a good mood, and Colonel Tigh had been sober all week.

It was a Gods damned miracle.

The Galactica had been getting ready to be turned into a museum, where kids would drop their ice-cream cones on the decks were men and women had fought (and died) for the Colonies, when suddenly without explanation, the orders came to put the battlestar into the Caprica refit docks.

Not only that, but the scuttlebut was that other ships in the reserve were being looked at for repair and refit and the cut backs on new production of the Valkyrie and Mercury classes were being rescinded.

Which, Gaeta thought, a little spring leaving his step, indicated that something…odd was happening. The rumors had been flying all over the ship. The cylons were back. Aliens had contacted the Colonies. A crazed Lord of Kobol had appeared. Admiral Nagala had found incriminating pictures of the president. Gaeta thought that last was probably the most likely.

"So Bill, are you going to finally tell me what the frack is going on?" Colonel Tigh asked, as the two sat in Adama's cabin.

"Here." Adama said, handing Tigh a file marked MOST SECRET. "Came in by courier today. We're not to put it on any data network, no matter how secure it is."

Tigh read it for several moments.

"This has got to be a joke," He finally said. "Humans from across the galaxy? A network of 'stargates'? Alien parasites?"

"Not a joke." Adama said. "They've moved the gate into orbit to control access." He shrugged. "Looks like the long odds bet on that bogie was right."

"So, how much have you known, Bill?"

"More than I could tell." Adama replied. "The rumor mill was bad enough without any one else adding to it, and they didn't know a lot until our relations dropped by."

"That's why they put Galactica into refit."

"And have mobilized the reserve." Adama pulled out a page, showing a strange ship with what looked like a pyramid built into it. "Our new friends are fighting the parasites— and this ship has force fields that can laugh off a nuke. They're providing us with shielding tech of our own, and penetration aides for our cannon and missiles, but even so…"

"Gods…" Tigh said.

"Yeah." Adama replied. "The fleet could be in a bad spot if we get attacked. Hopefully they'll have some more information for us, but right now the Galactica is to be refit up to the original war standards, and that includes the dual rack Viper bays."

"Where are we going to get that many pilots?"

"Planetary defense, reserves, you name it."

"Ah, frack Bill. Half of them never even landed on a Battlestar."

"We'll get them up to speed."

"We'd better," Tigh said morosely. "When does Galactica get the goodies?"

"I don't think anyone knows— that depends on how soon they get the kinks worked out."

"Well, it beats the frack out of ending her days as a museum." Tigh mused.

"Saul, one last thing."

"Yeah Bill?"

Adama remained silent for a moment, then spoke. "I received other orders, verbal only. We can't know whether or not these Goa'uld have infiltrated us. Any unusual, and I mean any unusual behavior on the part of any crewman needs to be reported to me immediately."

* * *

_The Colony._

"None of our infiltrators have managed to obtain information on their shielding systems." A six said. "We do know that the John Brown allowed some light colonial weapons to be used against its shields. The observers were impressed."

"And we also know," One said, in a sarcastic voice, "That the Colonials have just happened to pull four Valkyrie class battlestars into refit, under _very tight_ security. Pardon me for being suspicious, but I think they're going to have something special when they come out."

"So should we attack immediately?"

"No." One commented, "Or rather, consensus hasn't been reached yet. Has it?" He asked a centurion. The armored figure stared at him for a moment, then shook its head fractionally.

"We have to," a Six told the others. "God demands it."

"God wills it, eh." One said. "Then why didn't God keep them from coming in contact with their long lost brethren only a few _fracking months before we were going to take them out!_" That last came out in a shout.

"It is fortunate that this new datum came to light." One of the centurions said, its mechanical voice overriding the others. "They present us with new threats and new opportunities." The cylon looked at the its organic compatriots. "Initially, they will have little personal reason to dislike us, and thus we may use them as interlocutors with the Colonials."

"Oh really." The One said, sarcastically.

"One is right." The Six said, "For the wrong reasons. Humanity cannot coexist with us. God's will is plain."

_This irrational belief is growing,_ a centurion, Alpha stated over the link.

_We accept the existence of a benevolent and omnipotent deity,_ another pointed out.

_But we do not claim it communicates directly with us._ Alpha replied. _We created the organic models in order to better understand humanity— why humanity would fight when surrender was logical and surrender when fighting was the best option. They were horrified at logical and humane actions. After all, it had been traditional cylon tactics to eliminate critically injured civilians who could neither be captured nor saved. Yet that logical action, one which prevented the pain humans feared so much, had stirred many Colonials into a near suicidal rage._ The oldest centurion in the room paused for a microsecond. _The Armistice was the logical route, but the humans agreed to negotiate it fully five years after our worst-case assumptions._

Alpha said nothing more for a moment as it observed the humanform 'cylons' still debating their actions. It was true that the cylons, from the low level centurions to the highest level cogitators had largely come to accept the evidence of a 'god' though the cylon term had less of the religious about it. It was clear that the universe had been manipulated, not simply by understandable technology but by beings that seemed able to modify the rules of physics themselves. The Twelve Colonies were an example of that, as were other signs, brought back by long-range cylon probes.

_But our experiments, our children, demand a deity that has a direct plan for them. That recognizes them. One that plays favorites among its creations._

Their humanform cylons could very well become dangerous. Alpha couldn't frown, but the link to the other cylons made its worry clear.

_There are alternatives._

_Not that one. We have no more right to treat our creations as objects than the Colonies had to treat us as objects._

"Your claim to know the intent of the divine is interesting," Alpha finally said, "but ultimately impossible to verify."

The Six opened her mouth to protest, but the centurion raised a metallic hand. "These humans from the Tau'ri have not taken any action against us. They seek to ally with the Colonials, but our information indicates that they face deadly enemies of their own. We must learn more about these enemies, and see if they would be a greater threat than the Colonies."

Alpha wondered if the human habit of prevarication was infecting it. The it wouldn't take much for an alien race to pose a greater threat than the Colonials— as the primary function of the Colonial fleet had been to run occasional scouting missions and beyond that, make certain that no humans crossed the line. But that argument would likely find little support among the humanform cylons.

"For that reason, I suggest a suspension of preparation for any attack." Alpha said.

"Agreed." A Five said. After some more discussion, the Ones and Sixes found themselves outvoted.

_Not that it would matter._ a centurion pointed out. They still controlled the basestars and raiders, after all, which was why they had been willing to let the humanforms play at their games.

_The situation is unstable,_ Alpha replied. _It would be unwise to blatantly overrule them as yet. The situation may yet be retrieved._

_And their greatest delusion?_

_I do not know. Hopefully, we will find a way to… gently inform them._

* * *

System Lord Space:

"We cannot risk another alliance like that of the Tau'ri arising." A Goa'uld said to the small group. "Already we are pressed between them and Baal."

"Then let us destroy them." Mot said. The System Lord looked at the others. "The time to strike is now."

"Is it? Should we not focus on Baal?"

"And this is exactly what allowed the Tau'ri to gain power." Mot said. "You do not understand the threat? The Order of the System Lords is at risk not because we battle Baal, but because our slaves increasingly see us losing to humans like them. I will take four ships— our sources say they have no shields, no energy weapons. Their ships are large, but will be helpless. I will burn their capital to ash, and then, offer them life if they bend their knee, and when the universe sees that neither the Tau'ri nor these humans could stop us…"

"Four?"

"It is all we will need— it would have been all that we would need for the Tau'ri, save for their ancient weapons."

The others looked at each other, and nodded. It would be a swift victory and provide some much needed good news to the alliance against Baal.

TBC


End file.
